Chicago for Chicagoans' 10th Birthday Party!

REGISTRATION AVAILABLE BEGINNING SEPTEMBER 20TH

Holy heck, we've been giving pay-what-you-can walking tours of Chicago for TEN YEARS! To celebrate this milestone achievement, we are throwing a big, fun, nerdy as hell party for ourselves.

Our tour guides, lecturers, board members, staff, and longtime super volunteers will be creating shoebox dioramas about Chicago history for this event. Yes, like small children do in middle school. Why? Because we're a bunch of highly educated, crafty history dorks and we think that sounds like a hilariously fun idea. It's also a competition: there will be door prizes, ribbons, and awards!

Our audience and the general public are invited to attend the grand unveiling of these ridiculous dioramas -- vote for your favorite(s), bribe the judges, hang out with cool people, eat cake, drink beer, and celebrate all the wonderful things we have learned together over the last decade.

Event Details:

2pm-3pm: Arrive, grab a drink at the cash bar or purchase food from the Milo's Market Pop-Up, and browse the dioramas! Every attendee at the event will be given one popular vote ticket to vote for your favorite. This is Chicago after all... so additonal votes may be purchased for $2.

3pm-4pm: Judges announce the top 5 dioramas and begin short interviews with the finalists. The public may listen in, ask questions, and heckle (of course).

4:30pm: Cake & announcement of contest winners! There will be glorious ribbons awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place -- as well as a Popular Vote winner and as many honorable mentions as the judges feel like awarding.

​Chicago for Chicagoans happily exists as a "pay-what-you-can" operation. A suggested tip of $10-20 per person is always appreciated, but reviewing us on Yelp, liking us on Facebook, spreading the word, and attending future tours tells us how much you love us too! We are a certified 501(c)(3) nonprofit that creates inclusive walking tours by & for Chicago residents, designed to represent the histories of all Chicagoans. Donate online fee-free at chicagoforchicagoans.org.

Belmont Tavern is a historic Chicago bar set on the first floor of a 135 year old building on the corner of Belmont and Kimball. After sitting dormant for 25 years, owner/operator Nick Kokonas reopened the tavern in late 2025 as an homage to the history of what came before — with the added goal of advancing the Chicago cocktail scene. Enjoy their top tier cocktail program, Old Style on draft, and fun selections of beer and wine meant to confuse and delight in an unpretentious, casual atmosphere with reasonable prices.